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Army 'killed unarmed NI people'

Former members of an undercover British army unit have claimed to BBC's Panorama that they killed unarmed civilians in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Yesterday the country's attorney general called for an end to prosecutions before 1998.

Former NI Sec: 'Better to support victims in other ways'

Former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain said he did not back a proposed amnesty for prosecutions in Troubles-related murders, but admitted efforts to punish crimes committed during the time was "difficult, if not impossible."

"Pursuing crimes committed three or four decades ago at enormous expense, with enormous effort, where the evidence is very difficult if not impossible to achieve.

"It's better in my view, having dealt with these issues myself, to support the victims in their plea for justice in other ways.

"If you keep going down the legal route there's actually no prospect in the bulk of the cases that you are going to succeed and you just reopen the whole past instead of moving forward and instead of really addressing the victims' and the widows' grievances."